Last Chance Saloon - Marian Keyes [117]
But today, as only saline solution dripped into him, despite being weak as a kitten, X-ray thin and greyish-yellow, he was better than he’d been in days. ‘Gather around!’ he croaked, in a travesty of his erstwhile flamboyance. ‘Now, you know the way you all keep saying that if there’s anything you can do for me…’
Tara and Katherine nodded eagerly.
‘Good. You promise?’
‘We promise.’
‘Promise, promise?’
They rolled their eyes – as if they wouldn’t do exactly what he wanted! ‘Promise, promise.’
‘Right, I’ll start with you, Tara.’
She assumed an attentive expression.
‘You’re to leave Thomas.’
The smile remained on her face, but the light behind it had gone, and her eyes were startled. ‘Excuse me?’ she managed. She’d been expecting him to ask her to bring in new pyjamas or – God forbid – visit an undertaker’s for leaflets for him, or even to extract a promise that she’d take care of Sandro if the worst happened. But not this.
‘I want you to leave Thomas,’ he repeated.
She elbowed Katherine. ‘Next he’ll want me to climb Mount Everest,’ she laughed, uncertainly, ‘and while I’m at it straighten the Leaning Tower of Pisa and –’
‘Not funny, Tara.’ He silenced her. ‘This is no joke.’
Startled by his intense tone, she looked into his skeletal face for clues. Her heart banged in her chest, as she realized he was serious. ‘But why?’ she faltered.
‘Because I want you to be happy.’ His voice was faint but surprisingly firm.
‘I am happy.’ The erratic, inexplicable dissatisfaction she’d been feeling with Thomas was instantly wiped out. ‘I’d be very unhappy without him. Wouldn’t I?’ She turned to Katherine for support.
‘No point asking her,’ Fintan sang, hoarsely. ‘She agrees with me.’
‘What exactly does my relationship with Thomas have to do with you?’ Tara attempted defiance.
Fintan took a breath to speak, then paused. He looked at his blanket, seemingly for inspiration, before saying, ‘If I’m going to die, I’m damned if you’re going to waste your life.’
Tara was shocked, shamed – and angry. How dare he play God with her life just because he might die?
‘Yes, I am a bastard,’ Fintan said cheerfully, speaking her mind and embarrassing her. ‘Shamelessly manipulating my position. Might as well get what I can out of it. Christ knows, it hasn’t much else going for it.’
‘I’m sorry you don’t like Thomas.’
‘The only reason I don’t like him is because he’s bad to you.’ Fintan’s glittering eyes held hers. ‘Look at how he hasn’t even come to see me and I’ve been here nearly two weeks. Even Ravi’s been in to visit.’
Tara suspected that Ravi went to the hospital for the same reason that people slow down, their eyes out on stalks, passing a road accident, but all she said was, ‘That’s Thomas being bad to you, not to me. If you want to see him that badly, Fintan, I’ll organize it.’
‘I don’t want to see him at all. Jesus, the very sight of him would set me back months. But I’m making the point that he’s not supporting you.’
‘Fintan, I’ll do anything else for you, anything at all,’ she flapped, ‘but there’s no way I’m going to leave Thomas.’
‘You promised.’ He thrust his chapped-to-bits lower lip out in joke sulkiness. ‘Look.’ He stuck out his tongue. ‘Do you want to see my mouth ulcers? They’re amazing.’
‘Fintan…’
‘Look at the ones on my tongue. Aren’t they huge? Look,’ he ordered her. ‘Look!’
‘Huge,’ she said, flatly. ‘Fintan, please don’t ask me to leave Thomas. He doesn’t treat me badly as such…’
‘No!’ Fintan attempted to sit up, but couldn’t summon the energy. ‘Katherine and I don’t want to hear about how it’s for your own good when Thomas insults you, a sign of how much he cares. And we don’t want to hear that it’s not his fault that he’s an obnoxious prick. If he treated his mother the way he treats you who’d blame the woman for scarpering? You said you’d do anything for me. So do it.’
‘Anything other than this.’
‘It’s easy,’ he urged, weakly, as his burst of defiance dissolved and he was flung once more against his pillows. ‘Tell her, Katherine. Just throw all your things in the car and